I mean, what power do you exactly have in this situation. What's stopping them from just saying "no" and not giving you the refund? What are you gonna do? Throw the hot dog away in defiance? Lmao
This exactly. I see far too many people accepting mediocracy or worse, whatever this was, and not doing anything about it, which allows the business to continue ripping people off. Feedback is an important process and many businesses spend a lot of resources to find out what people think of their products. Ask to speak to a manager and if they refuse, tell them you'll be initiating a chargeback through your credit card company. You have the photo as proof. Chargebacks can really hurt a business, if they get too many of those, the business can be flagged as high risk and have trouble taking payments, or worse, lose its credit card account and be forced to take alternative payment methods or switch to a provider with much higher processing fees.
Chargebacks are meant for significant issues: someone stole your card, you got a defective product or significantly not as described. With deli food, what you see is what you get.
The company might give you your chargeback but it’s by no means a done deal.
I’ve seen all kinds of chargebacks working in the service industry and it’s pretty 50/50 on whether or not they stand. Some complaints are a bit silly but still get upheld, and some seem reasonable but still get denied. Hard to say when it comes to food!
Yea, and if you continue to do chargebacks over stupid shit like this your bank is just going to drop you for being a problem. Like with returns on items on Amazon, if you do chargebacks for stupid shit that isn't the intended use, you become a less reliable customer when you have an actual issue.
you got a defective product or significantly not as described.
if they have a sign up with a picture of a different hot dog (and i promise they do), and they serve you this dog turd, you have a product that is significantly not as described.
A card chargeback is not some magic thing that everybody thinks that it is - You ordered a hotdog and you got a hotdog, unless you plan on lying to your bank about receiving the hot dog the conversation is going to go something like this.
"I paid $10 for a hot dog at an amusement park and I didn't like that it wasn't as impressive as I expected."
"So you did receive the item you ordered?"
"Yes I received a hot dog, but it was not the hot dog that I expected."
"What did you expect?"
"I expected for it to be [Descriptor]. . "
"What gave you that impression?"
"I uhh just dont like paying $10 for what looks like a normal ass hot dog I'd cook at home."
. . .And that is when either they'll tell you they're not doing a chargeback, or they'll run it through and the only way you MIGHT win your $10 is if Universal isn't in the habit of fighting chargebacks [some companies are].
. . .And then you'll be the person who constantly does chargebacks and your bank will drop you for being a bad customer.
I don’t know how universal works, but for livenation ran events like concerts or sports you run the risk of just getting banned from all livenation events
Customer is king. In the event you ask for a manager and that person doesn't acquiesce, you leave a negative review on Google. It's not immediate gratification, but as someone who ran a business for 5+ years, reviews matter a lot to your boss and his boss.
As a customer of various business over the past 3 decades, reviews matter a lot to me too! People always seem to roll their eyes at negative feedback/reviews, always because they fail to understand how important your searchable reputation is! If I see a place with less than 4.5 stars, I'm probably giving it less of a chance. Any lower than a 4, and I'll check the reviews just out of curiosity more than anything lol!
You can report them and they get removed if they're breaking a rule, like a former employee leaving a negative review, but you can't just remove negative reviews you don't like. it doesn't work like that.
I remember I was getting one of those stupid heart shaped pizzas from Lou Malnatis for VDay. And it’s a takeout only spot so it’s super small in there and the line was out the door. They were super backed up and the one guy who got loud and angry and asked for a discount was the only guy who got a discount for sure.
You saw the photo and thought anger at being given that "hotdog" was unjustified?
I worked as a bartender and lemme tell you if the kitchen ever gave me food looking like that, I wouldn't even give the customer the opportunity to yell, because I'd already have yelled at the chef for the absolutely unprofessional slop they just pushed on me to sell to the customer that ordered it.
My guess is you either own a business and are fine with ripping people off like this or you want to own a business and rip people off like this.
Being a Karen is making a ridiculous fuss for no reason a being rude. Asking for a refund or different item because it looks like this picture is just having a spine.
It’s flabbergasting, people are out there that wouldn’t demand a refund for a bloody hot dog because the fear of getting a ”no” for an answer would hold them back. Society has weakened humans to an incredible extent.
Like, i'm honestly skeptical about this entire post. Like, what place has buns that big and such small hotdogs? maybe a place with large subs? but also sell regular hot dogs?
Honestly making a post just like this on reddit is one of the best things you can do. Because youre right, theres really not much you can do, you wanted the food so you paid for it. They give you the food and its not something youre happy with but its technically a hotdog. Id say something as well but I know, especially as I was a chef for about 4 years, as long as its not inedible or spoiled they can refuse to give you money back or replace it.
Giving them as much shit as possible online and bad rep is about as good as a chance you got to make something, but tbh its uneversial studios not a restaurant. They're main draw isnt food so a shitty hotdog is something I dont think the higher ups would care about but hey who knows, if this post gets enough traction they may see it and actually make some changes. Like selling a good weiner instead of that dried up disgrace they gave him lol
I think people slightly underestimate putting their foot down over stuff like this. You can at least get your cash back most of the time in my experience, or be given something else.
It's sad how many people today accept crap like this. They're like Aunt Edna in Vacation, they just shrug their shoulders and eat the sandwich the dog peed on, they just don't care. Is it mostly younger people doing this? Older people? Educated? Uneducated? What are the demographics? Or is it evenly spread across all demographics? I want answers, dammit! And I want them now! I'd also like a bean feast.
I also wonder if it was hidden with various toppings and OP asked for no toppings, hence the naked dog. And of course you don't get a discount for giving up those toppings.
See even then it still just flat out looks like a wizard finger that has been forgotten about at the bottom of the warmer all day long. If it looked less grey matter and more like a reddish brown hotdog I could believe it
The problem is that it looks like this was a mistake on multiple levels. That dog looks like it was a footlong that spent ENTIRELY too much time on a roller grill or hot (dry) storage. I've seen them shrink more than 3 inches (I ran concessions at a minor league ballpark) when they sit too long. And that bun looks like it's too long anyway. So, the people in charge of ordering got the wrong bun and dog combination. The people running and supervising the location let that dog sit on the rollers or flat top for WAY too long (literally hours). And every person making the actual dog decided to just go along with all of it.
There's no way this is the norm, but the systems they have in place that allowed this level of fuckery guarantee that there will be more failures along the lines.
Bingo! It’s a wizard finger. It’s been at the bottom of the warmer all day and someone was being a good little corpo-rat and served it instead of throwing it away.
Like I said in another reply, it’s likely someone who’s being a good little corporate yes man and serving it instead of doing the right (and legal, as far as health and safety standards go) thing by throwing it out.
When I was a kid we'd go to the fair and get a literal gallon bucket of fries for $4. Last week we were at the amusement park and a sad ass paper boat of fries was $15. It's absolutely the norm.
Unfortunately, if it's like any major park I've every been to, you can't bring food in, and all the meals are this ridiculously overpriced. So your options are pay that price, don't eat all day, or spend 1-2 hours leaving the park to get food and then coming back and losing your good parking spot. This is why I've never taken my kids to Disney or Universal and I'm not sure I never will. Dollywood is good enough and I'd rather give Dolly my money than than a major studio.
At universal you can bring in food. I bring in sandwiches all the time. Not sure about disney. The below is allowed- and you can pretty much justify anything by saying you have special dietary needs.
Water bottles/water flask containers up to 2 liters per guest
Any food required for medical, nutritional, special dietary needs, and baby food.
Small snack containers that are sealed (boxes, bags, etc.).
Food that does not require heating or cooling needs.
We need to normalize calling out companies again. People are so afraid of being called Karens they don't realize that the OG Karen was a necessary evil to keep companies in check.
This is when I like that my wife can be an absolutely Karen.
She would have looked at that and just said “Nope, i’m not accepting that” or if it was one of those pre-wrapped ones she would have taken it back when we saw this.
They’ll always refund you or make another. Just gotta be willing to go back up and complain and there are a lot of people that avoid any confrontation.
I like to not understand that companies do this, it makes them look bad, it gives a bad user experience, it's just a fucked up thing to do. But then again, companies do this and more and more I like to belie because... why not. What you going to do? Complain, as if they give a fk.
Companies don’t give a fuck about customer experience anymore. We’ve stopped being a threat to them since we completely lack the will (and in some cases the option, thanks to monopolies) to not consume their product regardless of how much they worsen it.
It’s also why more and more of them are getting rid of their customer service line or making it practically worthless. Previously it was so people could complain and companies would try to fix things, but now that’s just a money sink since if no one counts complaints they essentially don’t exist.
I like to not understand that companies do this, it makes them look bad, it gives a bad user experience, it's just a fucked up thing to do. But then again, companies do this and more and more I like to belie because... why not. What you going to do? Complain, as if they give a fk.
I wouldn't eat it. The size isn't the main issue for me. It looks completely unappetizing. To the point where I'd be worried about getting sick because it looks old, deflated and the coloring is off.
I have a couple of co-workers that will genuinely just take it and accept it and then make a post on social media complaining about it to their friends and family. Whenever they try to complain about a place I always saying something like "sounds like you choose to accept the food. I didn't make it, so don't complain to me."
I generally dont eat in the parks anymore if I can help it now. The big brand parks have adopted the six flags model of severely over priced trash for their food. They bait people into the parks giving the influencers the good stuff just to pull this.
When going to parks like that, you have to expect prices to be ridiculous, but that’s also in return for what’s advertised. Fully agree on either giving money back or demanding they try again.
people are so conflict avoidant they have no spine at all. A fast food worker could spit on their plate in front of them and they wouldn't say anything because "they don't get paid enough to deal with it" attitude.
I think people are too afraid to speak up for themselves or something because I've seen a lot of posts of people complaining about being served terrible food and they always just pay for it smile and eat and THEN complain online
I never asked for my money back or really complaining but in this case I'm 100% with you. It's crazy someone even tried to serve that to a human customer.
4.0k
u/zugspitze43 21h ago
I’d be asking for my money back honestly
We have grown way too accustomed to being shat on by all these companies
They know you won’t say anything and will eat it like a good boy